Piano

General info and amplification - piano

Piano and mixer at Hammersmith Odeon, 1975

Acoustic grand pianos come with their own amplification (hammers strike strings and reinforced through the soundboard). The bigger the piano, the louder it sounds but still that's not enough to entertain a big venue or stadium. That's why they need additional amplification equally to any other acoustic instrument (e.g. drums or vocals).

The way they were mic'd for concerts changed through the years: in the very early days Freddie must have depended on what the venue had regarding both the piano itself and the way it was reinforced. That was always uncomfortable because he could have to bear with out of tune instruments or feedback noises if they weren't properly set-up. Moreover they wouldn't have enough money or time to hire a tuner each night, especially if it was a short-notice gig.

Later on, when the band were more famous, it's more likely that local suppliers gave them enough freedom to set the piano as Freddie wanted, so they usually installed two mics, one for the lower notes, one for the higher ones. Each mic drove the signal to a Hi-Watt 100 Watt Amplifier which then reproduced the sound through two Sound City 4x12 Cabinets. Until late 70s piano signals weren't usually connected to the Tannoy and that's why some gigs must have had very low volume in that instrument.

While miking the piano via condensers certainly was a wise solution in the studio (due to high fidelity recording provided by the mics), live it wasn't quite the best. Some nice concerts like Houston 1977 will never be released because of piano feedback noise and poor sound quality.

The perfect solution was adapting the Helpinstill system (invented by Ezra Charles Helpinstill and popularised by Elton John in 1972). As the photo shows, it uses magnetic pick-ups that sense string vibration instead of getting environmental sounds. Plus it worked perfectly for Freddie's meticulous needs: he could control the volume through the small mixer, so the piano would never be louder or quieter than he wanted it.

The crew set the piano mixer (a custom model by Claire Brothers) to feed a SAE Stereo Amplifier which then sent the signal to 2x15 Cabinets and two JBL 2440 Horns. After PA Systems became more advanced, they simply sent the signal from the amp to the Tannoy and then both the band and the audience could listen to it perfectly: note the extraordinary quality of the piano during the Magic Tour!